GHANAIAN JOURNALIST'S EQUIPMENTS STOLEN AT AFCON??

Seasoned Ghanaian photo journalist, Senyuiedzorm
Adadevoh has gone through a scary 24-hour after
her photography equipment, worth $300,000 was
taken by a taxi driver.
Ms Adadevoh who works for international agency,
Sports Unlimited, had the bag, taken away by the
driver after a colleague inadvertently left it in
taxi, and despite dropping them off at the Hotel
Mongomo, the Black Stars base, the driver failed
to return it after realising what happened.
It took the surveillance of the CCTV camera at the
hotel lobby, which captured the action, the car
number of the taxi to retrieve the bag.
The security detail at the hotel first arrested the
owner of the taxi who said he did not work with the
taxi that day, but his brother did, and threatened
with arrest and seizure of his taxi, he finally led
the police to his brother's house.
On arrival at the house, the young man had not
only gone through the bag, but had also re-
arranged the items, dismantled the gadgets, ready
to sell them off, not giving the indication that he
was going to return the bag to the owner.
When confronted, he had very little to say, but
admitted he was getting ready to take it to Bata
to sell as he was not sure who had left the bag in
his car. He felt it was 'God sent,' he told the
police.
However, his plea for pardon was not taken as he
was handcuffed and whisked away to the police
station, and Ms Adadevoh, who until then was
understandably in a distraught mood as she had
been rendered jobless, was reunited with her
equipment.
Her ordeal is the worse Ghanaian journalists have
had to go through since arriving in Equatorial
Guinea.
Right on arrival at the Malabo Airport, most of
them were told they could not enter because they
did not have visas stamped in their passports, even
though the Confederation of African Football
(CAF) in confirming their accreditation, had also
stated that it passed for entry visas for the
tournament, but that information, unfortunately
had not been passed on to the immigration officers
with just a day to the tournament.
With the ensuing misunderstanding, the Ghanaian
journalists were detained for hours at the airport.
Some were threatened with police arrest for
daring to challenge 'a big man' who had told them
they were foolish to have travelled without a visa
and were threatening to put them on the available
plane back to Ghana.
The situation was compounded by the language
barrier as there were no official translators at the
airport.
After almost four hours and several telephone calls
made, the issue was resolved and the journalists
were given the clearance and released.
Graphic reporter, Rosalind Amoh also on the
opening day, was subject to intense search by
security at stadium while caught up in the mad
rush for free tickets to the Ghana, Senegal
match.
Security failed to acknowledge her accreditation,
and was asked to join building agitated queue and
the security process.
When she was finally bailed out by a senior security
officer, she had lost her working tool, an IPad and
was lucky to have it returned to her moments
later, but with the entire screen damaged. She was
lucky to have it working well though.